An Open Letter to all Airbnb Guests

Hello!

Welcome! I assume that you’re visiting on holiday. A holiday that you’ve extensively planned out and researched. That’s how you came to rent the Airbnb next door. The place is adorable. Its location is prime. The neighborhood is excellent. I know, I also chose to live in this same building. Actually, right next to the place you’re renting out.

When people go on holiday they act a bit differently than they do in their day-to-day. When you go on holiday there is a sense of freedom. You have no responsibilities. You don’t have to wake up at a certain time and go somewhere each day. You don’t have to check your email or show up to work. You don’t have to go to bed early to get a good rest for the next day. You can party all night long with no consequences.

Here’s the thing, you’re not staying at a hotel. Instead, you’ve chosen to rent an Airbnb. It gives you that “local” feel we all want when we go on holiday but one you can only actually attain by being a local. An Airbnb is very different from a hotel. Your neighbors are no longer people on holiday but instead the locals you aspire to be. We have responsibilities. We like to go to sleep at a respectable hour during the week and while we do like to let loose we are conscious that we have neighbors. Neighbors that we have to see on a regular basis. We act with respect towards one another.

You are different from us. You can come and live next door but the sense of respect that we have for our living space you often don’t have. You’re here to have fun and live it up and hopefully go home with some souvenirs and great stories. But you chose to stay next door to us and we’re going to need to come to a common understanding.

We need you to not shout in the hallway. I’m pretty certain that if you live in an apartment back home you don’t shout up and down your hallways at all hours of the night. We need your music to turn off at a respectable hour. Again, if you were in your own apartment you wouldn’t be blasting music at 1:00 am on a Tuesday. Would you? Basically, we need volume awareness and control. Not too demanding right?

We need you to be respectful of check-out times. You think that you’re annoyed when the door is being knocked down by the cleaning people? Guess who else is even more annoyed? This happens far more often than it should. Remember, you’re not at a hotel where you can arrange a late check out. Please leave by the appropriate time. People need to get into the apartment to clean it and no one likes it when there is a lot of commotion because you can’t follow rules. Ok?

We need you to be conscious of your waste. Seriously the amount of trash I see pulled out of an Airbnb after someone stayed there for two days is insane. How do you even create that much trash in two days?

Lastly, we need you to respect our things. Please see my doormat pictures down below.

If you are going to use Airbnb this summer, the keyword to remember is RESPECT.

Sincerely,

Natasha and I’m pretty sure anyone who lives near an Airbnb

I have wanted this beautiful doormat ever since I first learned these two Polish words. I finally got one when I moved into my new apartment and it looked lovely and brought such happiness to my life.

Here is the same doormat not even two days after the first photo was taken. Notice how warn it looks? Notice how dirty it got? Well, it didn't get dirty from me because I was treating it with love and kindness and I generally have respect for the things I own. The Airbnb guests across the hall... not so much.